Show Notes
In our series about foods that built civilization, we talked a lot about grains, from wheat to corn to rice. Today, we are taking you to the ocean, with the civilizations that salmon built. From California to the interior of Alaska, salmon, a staple, allowed people to settle into villages, develop complex social networks, art, and trade routes. Those trade routes are as large as the ones in the Mediterranean. Some tribes built communal homes and developed complex art and language. Some were Seafaring tribes with canoes up to 60 feet long that traveled across oceans. All because there was a fish that would return in large numbers to streams and rivers, reliably, predictably. So predictable, the people could build their lives around salmon runs. So much so that some built a calendar not only with lunar cycles, but also with the return of the salmon. Civilizations have always gathered around food and water. The Mediterranean connected people who grew wheat and olives, giving people time to make wine, mine copper, build ships, trade with their neighbors, and occasionally go to war with them. Asia had rice and grain near the great river systems. The reliable calories from rice and grains allowed villages to become cities and to travel by water to trade. Today we are going to my home, from the Ventura River in California to my home state of Alaska.
The Crop That Swam Home Different than the other civilizations, no one had to plant this crop. They didn’t have to tend the crop. It literally swam home every year. Different times for different types of salmon. When the first Europeans saw these fish, the river was so crowded they joked you could walk on their backs, crossing the river and never get wet.
Ketchikan, The Salmon Capital of the World I grew up in Ketchikan, Alaska. A city founded upon salmon. Some say Ketchikan stands for smelly fish, apparently after the large spawn, as the fish died, it left quite an odor - you can only imagine thousands of dead salmon. Everyone has their favorite type of salmon. The large ones, the King Salmon, also called Chinook, typically start their run to the creeks and rivers in April. You could catch them reliably in late May and June, or even later. We had a King Salmon derby, usually in late May to early June. The record salmon was 79 pounds for that derby. The largest King I ever caught was 26 pounds, and I cannot imagine catching one larger. For a fish that was the livelihood of many of my neighbors, the stocks have become so low that the derby I grew up with was cancelled. Global warming has devastated salmon runs. The above totem is either an eagle or a man, depending on who you ask. The clam has caught it, and the tides roll in, and the man, or eagle, sings a song. Note the amazing carving, and a story as old as time itself. These are Chilkat blankets, or dancing blankets. They take up to five years to create. Made from a combination of inner cedar bark and mountain wool to make the foundation. The colors are mostly dyes of four natural pigments: black (hemlock bark/copper oxide), yellow (wolf moss), blue-green (copper soaked in urine), and the creamy white of natural undyed goat wool.
Non-Nomadic People Because of the abundance, both in terms of the salmon runs, other marine mammals, and berries, they didn’t have to forage. So they were able to build villages with communal living - they were SF before SF was. An intense harvest in the late spring and summer led to a winter of art, ceremonies, and the potlatch. The potlatch is a giant party where the hosts not only display their wealth, but give it away. The richer you are, the more you would give, and that would be the nudge for the neighbor to do the same. Large villages and communal houses, when encountered by the first Europeans, weren’t something they were expecting. There was an entire civilization, clans, tribes, and alliances. People who made treaties, made war, and played games. In Ketchikan, these were rebuilt during the Depress
More from Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson
With all the spices we have access to, it is amazing how bland recipes have become. I have many cookbooks, some from great chefs, television personalities, and friends. What I am always surprised by is how bland the food has become. People seem to think a bit of salt, pepper, maybe onions, and garlic provide the spices one needs. Perhaps it is because some associate spice with heat. Mostly because many have never experimented with some of those great warm spices available. A pinch of coriander, some freshly ground cumin, a little cardamom, or a touch of cinnamon can turn an ordinary dish into something remarkable. And the most astonishing part is that these spices financed voyages around the world, built cities, created fortunes, and caused people to kill one another. Without the spice trade, it is safe to say that the United States, as we know it, would be vastly different from what it is now. The money loaned to the United States, when we were a fledgling country, came from the wealthy spice merchants from what was considered one of the great hyperempires of the world, based in Amsterdam. But before we go to the birth of the United States, let me take you to the meatball.
Tea: The Drink That Built an Empire—and Helped Break One China had the tea. Britain had the appetite. John Hancock had a business to protect.
MesoAmerica and Chocolate In our series looking at foods that built civilizations, today we are going to stay in the Americas with chocolate. Chocolate has been used as currency, consumed by kings, incorporated into religious ceremonies, and prescribed as medicine. Today, it is a multibillion-dollar industry that wants you to believe that eating chocolate is an act of preventive cardiology. I mean, why not? They convinced us to give chocolate to people we love, eat it when we are happy, when we are sad, when only the dog understands us. Don’t feed chocolate to your dog. And we have done all this with a bitter seed that most of us would probably spit out if we tasted it straight from the tree.
I’ve been doing a series about foods that built civilizations. In this episode, we are talking about the potato. It is difficult to imagine that thousands of years ago, people constructed large buildings, managed rivers, built monuments, and created art. We have glimpses of these civilizations through stories, archaeology, and the structures they left behind, but much of their history has been lost. Imagine, we don’t even know where Cleopatra or Alexander the Great are buried, yet we know their stories. As European powers conquered Indigenous peoples, their languages, cultures, and oral traditions were suppressed. When a language disappears, so are the stories preserved within it. Our clues come from archaeology when we uncover a monument, a building, or an ancient settlement. In the Andes, the potatoes they cultivated were not the Russets, Yukon Golds, or fingerlings you find in the store today. Different colors, shapes, and textures. Adapted to survive the elevations, temperatures, and growing conditions. Biodiversity protected their food supply against frost, disease, and changing environmental conditions. If one variety failed, another might survive. The ancient wisdom of diversity that Andean farmers developed over thousands of years was lost when the potato eventually reached Ireland.
Corn, beans, and squash, the three sisters, were the Native Americans’ crop, providing a stable source of calories, protein, and farming from Canada through South America. They allowed civilization to go from a hunting people to those who built cities that rivaled Europe and pyramids equal to the marvels seen in Egypt. The rise of civilizations has a pattern: grow a stable crop that allows people to survive, and go from nomads to develop complex societies. In our series of foods that built civilizations, we turn to the Americas before Europeans arrived. Long before Europeans arrived, civilizations in the Americas had developed writing, calendars, monumental architecture, cities, trade networks, irrigation systems, pottery, and sophisticated agriculture. Corn, or maize, fed the Maya, Inca, and Aztec worlds. In what is now the American Southwest, Pueblo peoples built multi-story communities in the desert, while Mississippian societies built towns and enormous earthworks along the great river valleys.